If there’s any month of the year when you can expect just about everything to be biting on the Santee Cooper lakes, it would be May. Different species may be in varying water depths, but you can expect good fishing for just about everything.
While many local fishermen and guides specialize in only one or two species, a husband-and-wife team of guides, Barbara and Nathan Witherell, fish for just about every fish worth fishing for on Santee Cooper. According to the Witherells, during May there’s plenty of red-hot fishing activities to enjoy.
“Team Witherell” says the catfish, bream, shellcracker, crappie, bass and striper fishing is all very good. The Witherells fish from their own boats and have an outstanding knowledge of most all the species on Lake Marion and Lake Moultrie.
“If I had to pick just one species to be my No. 1 trip to recommend to a client during May, it would be the catfish,” said Nathan Witherell (866-505-0375). “One reason is that by May, the water has warmed up enough that both the blue and flathead catfish species are biting.
Barbara Witherell said the general trend is for catfish to be moving out of the shallow water during May.
“It’s transition time for the catfish, and there will be a time when both shallow or deep water can produce, depending on conditions. Basically, we’ll flat-line fish when in the shallows, and we’ll be drifting the deeper water.”
Nathan Witherell said that typical catfish baits are still the best baits during May.
“I’ll be using fresh cut shad, gizzard or threadfin, or even bream heads, during May. They will be productive for both big blues and flatheads,” he said. “It is an excellent time to catch a bunch of hefty catfish. If it’s a windy day, I’ll work the windy shallows. Otherwise, I’ll drift-fish deep water.”
Witherell also said he expects the crappie fishing to be excellent this year, based on the huge number of crappie caught last fall.
“I think we’ve got a bumper crop of good-sized crappie coming on, and by May, most of the fish will be relating to the drops and in the brushpiles,” he said. “I’ll look for the fish suspended over or in brush in water 12 to 16 feet deep. There are times you’ll catch several fish from one area, but on other days, you’ve got to move around to several places.”
Witherell said plenty of big slab crappie live in the lakes, but this year the number of keeper-sized fish should be considerably better than in the past.
The bream and shellcracker fishing will also be outstanding during May, he said.
“Personally, I prefer the five days before and after the full moon as prime bed-fishing time,” he said. “But you can find and catch them almost any time of the month. The bed fishing does have a lot of the big male fish concentrated in a small area. So once you get on them, you can catch a bunch of fish quickly. Usually, you’ll still be able to find plenty of bedding shellcracker and bream even into June during the full moon phase.”
The striper fishing is also very good this month, and Witherell said this is the last month anglers can fish for them before the season closes during the summer months.
“Most of the striper fishing during May will be live-bait fishing in the deeper water areas of the lakes,” he said. “The fish will have made it back down from the river, and my personal preference is to fish in the Pinopolis Dam area on Lake Moultrie in the real deep water. Last year we caught lot of fish, but not many legal-sized ones. Many were just an inch or less short of the keeper limit,” he said.
The largemouth bass fishing will be good and it will be a postspawn pattern he said.
“The largemouth will be off the beds, and although I don’t guide for them, I keep up with the fishing,” he said. “Most bass fishermen will be using the jig-and-pig and plastic worms around shallow-water cover such as brush and trees. Also, crankbaits fished over the humps, drops and around rip-rap will be good. Any place where you have some kind of cover in shallow water that is near deep water is likely to hold a largemouth bass. Topwater fishing is often good this time of the year, especially early and late in the day.”
That pretty much covers the primary species on the lakes. Pick your favorite May fishing target and get out on the lakes now.
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